Fact Check: Pundits aren't always clear about marijuana

It can be but usually isn’t addictive, doesn’t tend to spawn aggression

Florida voters will be able to decide this November on whether to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Twenty U.S. states and the District of Columbia have already legalized medical marijuana, while Colorado and Washington have gone another step and legalized the recreational use of pot.

PolitiFact.com, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-finding project of the Tampa Bay Times, has looked at certain claims regarding marijuana that have surfaced in viral emails and on various blogs. It applied its signature rulings: True, Mostly True, Half True, False, Mostly False and Pants on Fire.

Nancy Grace, Jan. 14, 2014: People on pot “shoot each other … stab each other … strangle each other, drive under the influence, kill families.”

The HLN host, a one-time prosecutor, said she had seen people high on pot “wipe out a whole family.” PolitiFact found a few individual cases that support that, but found no evidence that marijuana routinely causes violent acts. Ihsan Salloum, professor of psychiatry at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine told PolitiFact.com that the clear majority of users don’t become aggressive.

PolitiFact ruling: Mostly false.

John Morgan, Sept. 22, 2013: “Nobody’s addicted to” marijuana.

During a TV debate, attorney Morgan, who is leading the fight to legalize medical marijuana, apologized soon after making that claim for making a “huge mistake.” Dependence is uncommon, but it does happen in about 9 percent of all users, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, PolitiFact reports.

The Fox News host and best-selling author was angered by The Denver Post’s plans to intensely cover legalized recreational use in Colorado. O’Reilly told PolitiFact.com that he didn’t say that the Post was promoting pot. But PolitiFact.com counted him making that point nine times during his show.

It’s true that food stamp recipients get an electronic benefits card from the state, but the card can’t be used to get cash at ATMs. The “Fox and Friends” co-host would have had a point, PolitiFact.com notes, if he had talked about welfare benefits in general. But he didn’t.

Former congressman Kennedy, who is against legalization, was responding to President Barack Obama, who said in a magazine interview that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol. Kennedy said that typical pot today packs a bigger punch than it did when Obama was a teenager. When PolitiFact.com researched the claim, it found that the concentration of the main active ingredient in marijuana more than doubled from 1993 to 2008. But the “genetically modified” part was not true; marijuana is stronger due to selective breeding, not laboratory genetics.

A video billboard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway made this claim. While pot isn’t totally harmless, in one key respect it is safer than alcohol. A massive dose of alcohol can kill, but the same has never been observed with marijuana, PolitiFact.com notes.

The state’s Supreme Court found, by a slim majority, that the proposed amendment’s chief purpose “is to allow a restricted use of marijuana for certain debilitating medical conditions.’’ But while the measure lists some of those diseases, such as cancer, it also says “or other conditions for which a physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks for a patient.” Judd, head of the Florida Sheriffs Association, said that gave doctors a lot of flexibility. While some would not consider the examples he used as “minor ailments,” it is true that Florida’s ballot measure gives doctors more latitude than medical marijuana laws in other states.